On June 30, the Discovery Bay Community Center will be closing its doors for a proposed $552,500 renovation of the facility and will reopen in the spring of 2014.
I was tipped off earlier this week of this decision after a member of the former athletic club shared that a notice had been placed on the facility building and complained about poor communication from the CSD to members of the club.
It then prompted me to review the prior Community Center Committee meeting. In reviewing the meeting, the club facility will close down for renovations; however, the site will remain open for tennis, swimming, and overall site use such as outdoor activities.
Also, the pool that was slated for a May 30 opening remains closed.
According to Town Manager Rick Howard, the pool is on a delay because when they were planning the modifications of the pool, they didn’t believe they needed permits to an existing system as they believe it to be considered “maintenance”. Instead, Contra Costa County says its renovations and must submit plans.
Ultimately, the pool did not open May 30 and it appears the pool is another month or so away from opening—potentially late July, but no date was given.
In terms of communication, staff stated they wanted to get information out to the public and provided it to the Delta Sun Times, but that information was incorrect. He called it “unfortunate” that the information ran in the paper and was not pulled.
As far as membership goes, no numbers were provided other than being on record stating it has gone down significantly since they took over the facility—classes have also dropped off. Staff is blaming the Delta Valley Fitness Center.
It was suggested by Rick Howard that the CSD and the Community Center Committee “cut its loses and close the building” and begin renovating the building as of July 1.
When the Community Center reopens, Mr. Howard would like to create a Recreation Projects Coordinator Position to come on board either on Sept. 1 or Oct. 1 of 2013 with a goal of developing a recreation program.
“This would be a true parks and recreation, leisure position at a coordinator level and not city manager level or director level but a coordinator level that has background in that area. May be a leisure service program,” said Howard.
According to Howard, shutting down the facility this soon was not the way they wanted to begin with the community center. He blamed outside issues that brought Delta Valley into Discovery Bay.
The Committee shot back at that statement saying, the Delta valley wasn’t to affect our programs because the program was geared to Discovery Bay because he (being Delta Valley) is not offering those programs.
Committee members asked what kind of effort was made by staff to extend the tie to members that they were not shutting our doors. Howard replied that if I didn’t’ hit every class, he hit almost every class to discuss it with them. For whatever reason, they (being the members) did not want to pay individual pricing that they are getting for no-additional charge.
Other tidbits:
- Staff will begin promoting community center classes in either December 2013 or January 2014
- Community Garden – just four plots of thirty are being rented with 1-person renting 2-spots.
- Fencing on the property will be brought up to code. They rejected one bid and have sent out for a second bid—the real question I have is why didn’t they go for three bids to begin with?
Renovations:
The numbers were not discussed at the May 29 meeting and instead were placed on the June 5 CSD Meeting. Here is a link to the proposal which totaled $552,500 and listed the potential funding sources. It begins on page 7
http://www.todb.ca.gov/images/2013_Agenda_and_Minutes/06.04.13_Agenda_Packet.pdf
Here is a look at the potential Funding Sources for the project
- Park Dedication Fees – $118,800
- Measure WW Park Funds – $65,000
- Community Center Fund – $450,000
- Hofmann Funds – $950,000
- Twelve Lots – $360,000
- Water/Sewer Funds – $110,000
Farmers Market Idea
This was the entertaining discussion of the night by far as the Community Center Committee discussed the idea of hosting farmers markets at the facility when it re-opens. It was shared that Jim Mattison was putting together a farmers market separate from the CSD/Community Center somewhere in the Marina.
Rick Howard says the Farmers Market has folks get in line well in advance and is surprised that they are getting a farmers market.
According to the committee, it was explained that when Mr. Mattison came to the CSD with this idea, that there is a process he must follow which includes getting permits and food permits and was told that he couldn’t just have people come in and sell food—that is what he was told explained the committee.
Staff said he wanted to do it now, and found he had to be delayed. Staff also provided a card of the farmers market manager who manages the “real” farmers market. They are willing to come out here and they have the experience.
According to staff, Jim Mattisons farmers markets will occur on Sundays as currently proposed—appears this is through the Lions Club.
“That is more subversive act on Jims part to sabotage from his inability to participate and its unfortunate he is taking that route,’ said CSD Director Kevin Graves.
It was then asked about insurance and liability and provides bathrooms—the community center can host this type of event because it has bathrooms available on site.
The committee agreed that it would be a good idea in the future to create a farmers market through Discovery Bay and hold it at the community center.
Although Kevin Graves stated Jim Mattison is a friend and doesn’t want anyone to take it the wrong, but encourage someone on the Lions Club board to talk with Jim about this farmers market.
“I don’t like the way Jim he is handling this. He is disgruntled and he is being subversive in the activities that we are trying to get going here. I don’t know why. It’s just my feeling. Here is the thing with Jim, he is great at getting things done but he is not so great at getting help because he wants them done his way and right now and we can’t operate that way as a public entity and that is Jim’s frustration and it’s frustrating to me to but I have to adapt to it. I am not pleased with this report,” said Graves. “I do apologize for bring up the Lions Club and strike from the record and hopefully no one will listen to this.”
16 comments
Is this a joke? The CSD made this community center out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and now its closing? Glad to see some real reporting as our local community paper didn’t say anything about this and the press seems to want to promote a farmers market that probably isn’t even legal yet. We deserve better in Discovery Bay
LOL at Kevin Graves comments at Jim Mattison. So true and glad he was honest.
the news about the community center keeps getting better by the week. where is the discovery bay residents voice on this project since the csd thinks they can do whatever they want with our money. Where is supervisor piepho on this?
Should a director on any board call someone who is a citizen of the year subversive? That is probably not a good idea for anyone elected. The community center project continues to go down the drain and hope discovery bay residents speak up
Captain Queeg (CSD Director Kevin Graves) accuses the Citizen of the Year of stealing his strawberries!
Smart move…
I guess the people who questioned the CSD’s plan for the failed Athletic Club property were right.
….at the peril of inciting nastiness in my direction I am going make a couple comments. I will preface by saying I live out of state now but still have businesses in CA that I visit every month and most months I still ski in the waters near DB; I spent 2 days in DB this week. I also maintain real estate interests in DB & E CCC.
From the time (several years ago) I first learned of DB’s CC quest and looked into the details it was clear that it was a total illogical mess and it was largely the county’s fault. Unfortunately when the DB CSD was formed they never acted to fix the problem and they blindly continued down a path destine for failure at many levels.
I won’t go into all the details re the fundamental problems but I will mention one. Research determined that no place in N CA (and probably all of CA) does a CC exist, run by a CSD type body, without the support of a general fund or some other direct taxation to support operational overhead. This CSD has no general fund and has no legitimate (voted upon) way of raising ongoing operating funds for a CC. Simply taking park (park zone) funds does not fair-share the cost burden throughout the community, plus it short changes the parks that many use and diverting sewer water funds is just plain wrong (and probably not legal). They always said ‘user fees’ would cover overhead but that is a total fallacy. They were told by many that user fees would be minimal and should not be counted on. These people were on a quest not founded in reality and they were too _____ (you pick) to listen when they were clearly told what was going to happen.
The reality is the DB CSD crew are not skilled operators…they run the their sewage/water program by simply jacking the rates when they want to spend more …that is a pretty easy way to pay the bills. They were told that could not happen with a CC and they were further told not to saddle the entire community with a significant obligation (that had no operating funds) that only a very few would use.
The sad but true contributing force behind this whole thing is the desire to set the stage for swanky new CSD offices. In my opinion, very small sewer/water districts do not need nice offices. I have known of many profitable business that have done just fine with less functional office space than this CSD now has. If the people running this CSD want to function like a city and have city amenities for themselves then they should peruse the quest to be a city.
one more thing…..at the root of all this is how little the hofmann co has done or was caused to do in the community they reaped a major windfall in. it is well known that all along hofmann was tight with the ruling politicos and was never challenged to step-up with respect to infrastructure or anything else. the county folks love unincorporated development fees and they love contributions from developers. why bite the had that feeds you? who cares about the minor citizenry when the upside is a full political bank account and more money to divert to larger voting blocks. Hoffman should have on his own done more in DB and if not he should have been pushed to something like he did in Concord.
23:30 mark on this audio file is Dysfunction Bay at its best…
http://www.todb.ca.gov/images/2013_MP3_Files/05.29.13_TODB_Community_Center_Meeting.MP3
In between calling him a disgruntled community subversive who’s problem is he doesn’t work well with others, Kevin Graves says Jim Mattison is a friend of his. He bought him a beer on his birthday. The real buzz in town is Graves picking up a tab… Mike B, can you confirm Graves did that?
Confirmed above in the piece… we quoted it.
Wow…..I just listened to the audio. Thanks for providing it.
I think the DB citizens are fortunate to have Mr. Graves exposing Mr. Mattison’s antics. I appreciate people that call a spade a spade. Our local governments need more of that.
Bravo to Mr. Graves.
I have to ask, What does this have to do with Graves buying him a beer? Is the buzz gossip or just sour grapes from the low brow crowd?
Isn’t Jim Mattison the same guy who started the false rumor about inflated crime stats out in Disco Bay? No wonder there are issues with that guy.
I’ve heard that from a few reliable sources including this site.
@Easy Reader… he did and we proved him wrong. It’s a shame the local paper in Discovery Bay reported it as fact and rallied behind Mattison as a form of stirred things up a bit.for a meeting. They later changed their tone after it was pointed out crime was actually going down.
Thanks for confirming Burk. I thought I remembered something shady with Mr. Mattison regarding the crime issue.
Keep up the good reporting. East county needs more of this real, up front news and less of the “fluff” and candy coated material the press newspapers wants to feed us.
Ohhhh, you were referring to that Delta advertiser. Sorry, as a “reader” I really don’t consider that a news source in the least. It’s more of a coloring book! I read them all and that one takes the cake. Talk about dysfunctional….The editor cannot even spell. It’s pretty badddddd.
I find zero crediblity in forums and comments where the indivual posting is not required to use their real name. If you have ‘reliable resources’ name them. My guess is that Easy Reader is the author of this site.
at Pati… I am the author of this site.
Pati,
Very few forums if any require the use of your real name. There are numerous reasons for some (like me) to post anonymously.
I know how reliable my resources are and because I ask my questions from those who are directly involved. It isn’t rocket science, just common sense.
I’m not sure why the bothers you. If you don’t trust what you read from me, then go to the source for yourself. I am merely trying to save you a step by posting it here.
For the record I am not the author of this site. However for the most part I almost always agree with his statements because just like me, he does his homework (and goes straight to the source for his facts).
If you haven’t already, you will discover who delivers facts and who delivers faulty opinions on this site. Like I said, it’s not rocket science.
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